Following Michael Schumacher?

bearmtnmartin wrote: And I have to say that you haven't lived until you have pitched it sideways at that speed trying desperately to scrub off speed. Its not a lot different from having a moment in a race car or on a bike.

Wow, 100 kph on skis is wicked fast-- that's downhill racer, closed course stuff. I can't imagine going that fast, particulary old and fat, then trying to stop!

I don't know how Schumacher hit 96 kph off-piste unless it was all ice or he fell over a cliff. Though I guess he was fit and fearless enough to go those speeds if he could.

I googled a picture of the location,looks like he lost control and went into a rock garden

Thinking positive hoping for the best

Basil Exposition wrote: I don't know how Schumacher hit 96 kph off-piste unless it was all ice or he fell over a cliff. Though I guess he was fit and fearless enough to go those speeds if he could.

At least one article indicated that he wound up in a spot between two trails; as though he may have meant to follow one or the other but his trajectory took him off-piste, as opposed to having been off the groomed/marked trails when he got up to that speed...

Ransom wrote:

Basil Exposition wrote: I don't know how Schumacher hit 96 kph off-piste unless it was all ice or he fell over a cliff. Though I guess he was fit and fearless enough to go those speeds if he could.

At least one article indicated that he wound up in a spot between two trails; as though he may have meant to follow one or the other but his trajectory took him off-piste, as opposed to having been off the groomed/marked trails when he got up to that speed...

Interesting. That's certainly not the way the resort spokesman seems to have been spinning it.

Off piste= Outside the liability boundary

Just saw this from CNN:

'Catapulted onto his head'

His manager, Sabine Kehm, recounted more details Tuesday of how the accident happened, gleaned from friends and family members who were present at the time.

The party was skiing in an area of deep snow when Schumacher helped a friend who had fallen, she said. As he set off again and went to make a turn, he seems to have hit a rock hidden under the snow.

This catapulted him into the air and he fell head down with all his weight onto another rock, she said, resulting in severe injuries to his head.

Schumacher was not traveling fast at the time, Kehm said, so those with him were initially shocked by how badly he was hurt. "It's not a question of speed but of the angle that you hit the rock," she said.

I heard he parked it in the last turn during race qualifying and an opponent ran into him!

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I heard he parked it in the last turn during race qualifying and an opponent ran into him!

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I heard he parked it in the last turn during race qualifying and an opponent ran into him!

TBI-survivors worldwide will find solace in the fact that, no matter how severe their injury, it pales in comparison the the brain-damage displayed in your joke...

""

I finally had a minute to check the German press to see what they are saying.

The only different piece I saw was this:

Medienberichten zufolge ist der Helm, den Schumacher trug, durch den Aufprall auf den Felsen zerbrochen.

Basically the helmet he was wearing was broken by the ipmact- I take it as it was broken by the force of his head hitting the rock.

In reply to Basil Exposition:

When you swing for the fences every time you going to drill a kid in the bleachers now and then.

Parts of Davids link have changed from skiing fast to helping a friend who had fallen ?

FYI, skiing off-piste is not as big a deal in France as it is in lawyer land USA. Far from it. It's what any expert skier would be doing. That's where the good snow and interesting terrain lives. It simply means that it's not a maintained trail.

But US-based reporters and media won't understand that.

latest … doesn't look all that good

http://msn.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/michael-schumacher-feared-could-be-in-a-coma-forever-skiing-accident-brain-injury-france-formula-one-011614

though others have said that that report was downplayed by "more reliable sources".

and I've seen a few others though that say outlook for a full recovery is probably zero, and even getting out of the coma the chances are not high.

still hoping for a good recovery

I listen to a lot of F1 related podcasts. One of them is fun with cars, one of the guys who runs that is Robin Warner who also writes for R&T. Their last Podcast was talking about the accident, Robin has similar injuries after falling off a bridge during a photo shoot last Feb in Ca with R&T. He was in a medically induced coma for over two weeks as well and has made a 100% recovery.

Link to his R&T article about it: http://www.roadandtrack.com/features/web-originals/warner-head-injury-schumacher

Keep hoping.

The piste is the groomed portion of the ski hill. Off piste does not refer to skiing out of bounds. It just means skiing the ungroomed parts of the mountain. Serious skiers use the piste for getting to the next fun powder section. As regards speed, I have a ski tracks app and it regularly shows max speed for the day at 80 to 90 k. And I am sure not the fastest guy on the mountain. I would never do that through a crowd of people, but when you are a few hundred meters from the lift and the hill is empty you just let gravity do its thing. If you watch men's downhill races those guys are doing probably 140 or 150 on the fast sections. Even GS guys going around flags will hit 120 or more.

Former F1 doc has a new article. It's very speculative, but also pretty grim: http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/

My son went through much of what the doctor said after a snowmobile crash into a tree. It was touch and go for quite awhile. Today he is alive and functioning but he is not the man he was before.

In reply to iceracer:

I can imagine that may be the case in any survivable head trauma. If or when he comes out of this, I wonder who that man will be.

Tom_Spangler wrote: Former F1 doc has a new article. It's very speculative, but also pretty grim: http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/

Very sad story for Michael and once again one of life's true ironies. Here's a man who spent his career participating in one of the most dangerous (if not THE MOST dangerous) sports on the planet and has a life altering accident while skiing on holiday. Proving how precious life is and that nobody really knows how or when it all might go away. Stay safe my friends.

Unfortunately, MS appears to have contracted pneumonia. Common in coma patients, but it certainly doesn't help the situation. Very little information is forthcoming, but the http://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/ blog has added an update that doesn't sound very positive (and doesn't include the latest information about the pneumonia).

Yea. I read that without coughing or swallowing, pneumonia is common. It may slow down his waking process.

Doesn't look good:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/09/schumacher-family-reportedly-told-only-miracle-can-save-driver/?intcmp=latestnews

Not sure where they got that information from, I just checked a couple of reputable (as in not yellow press) German newspapers and they didn't mention any of the above. That doesn't mean the Daily Telegraph didn't get that information from somewhere reputable, but I'd guess that at least one of the papers would have mentioned something.